If this is used on Maj then much of the slave trade which on Earth was done to provide a workforce has been replaced by some use of magic. GM options are included for the use of magic in work via Undead, detailed below, Constructs, and Utilergists. The undead are tireless, need no food or drink, are immune to disease, and will never revolt.
The poor may sell the bodies of their dead relatives, after a ceremony of leaving, and these end up as zombies, usually ending up working far away, or the bodies are stolen from their graves that the poor cannot guard effectively. There are some attempts at secret burials.
Religious practice may well be altered to make cremation acceptable, though it should be noted how expensive this is in fuel (or magic), and only the relatively small middle classes such as merchants can usually afford this.
The rich can afford guards for their graves, though the fact that some of these might sell the bodies, and then guard somewhere which is empty, means that at least yearly inspections are carried out. Some of the rich arrange that greater undead guard their graves from all but family members, or that their graves include elaborate traps.
Many priests of good religions are opposed to this trade, as they claim that it encourages evil, and a lack of respect for people, but the economics, particularly in under-populated colonies, makes it difficult to ignore. While the priests of good religions may maintain guarded graveyards, these can be particularly attractive places to raid.
In some placed destruction of owned undead may be a civil offence, and priests who do so will have to pay appropriate compensation for the purchase price of replcement undead, plus a fine. Priests who can't or wont pay will likely be imprisoned, or in the most extreme cases executed, with their bodies joining the zombie workforce.
There may be particularly major use of undead in the colonies (on Maj these would be the New World States (Vinland/America)), for agriculture, and elsewhere for things like processing sugarcane. The black onyx trade will be very healthy as well.
There will be people whoes job it is to initially create the undead by animating them, control the undead (Undead Masters) so as to get useful work out of them, maintain them, and deal with them if they for some reason become uncontrolled. There will likely be thieves who specialise in stealing the undead, along with items connected with them, and then selling these far enough away to avoid getting caught. There may well be (dangerous) money to be made in tracking down the missing, stolen, bodies of people's dead relatives, and ensuring they go to their 'proper rest'.
There will likely be nicknames for those who make it their profession to control the undead, and some of the more polite ones might be 'bone boy/girl' or 'bone dancer', with nastier ones being things like 'corpse dancer' or 'corpse snatcher', along with far ruder things.
The only sort of undead considered here are the unintelligent corporeal ones, produced by the Animate Dead spell, or similar effects. This is assumed to mean zombies and skeletons, in various sizes.
Zombies are maintained in a reasonably intact state by use of preserving magic such as Gentle Repose, protective amulets, or they are repaired by Mending spells, which fixes decay or minor wear-and-tear, or Inflict ~ Wounds spells, which fixes significant lost hit points. If they decay so much that repair is no longer practical, i.e. they start to fall apart, then they are usually re-animated as skeletons, which are less valued as they are physically weaker, and their greater dexterity is of limited use as they need to be precisely instructed to make good use of it. Most undead control is via talismans, see 'The Magic of Maj Space (addition)', below, but if these are lost or destroyed then the undead are 'free', and usually wander off, becoming hostile to the living.
The price for undead depends on how many there are controlled by a single talisman, and what variety they are. But the typical price is 200 gp for a medium zombie, and 150 gp for a medium skeleton, so a minimum talisman of three medium zombies made by a 6th level cleric would be priced at 600 gp, or a minimum talisman of five medium skeletons made by a 5th level cleric would be priced at 750 gp. The minimum price for a zombie of any size will typically be 100 gp, and 75 gp for a skeleton (it costs the animator a minimum of 50 gp per undead), for larger than medium undead add at least 100 gp per extra HD (150 gp/HD is more common).
A 'fresh' dead body ready to turn into a medium zombie has a normal price of 75 gp (minimum 25 gp), and one ready to turn into a skeleton 38 gp (minimum 12.5 gp); plus 38 gp (minimum 12.5 gp) per extra HD.
Gag Hollold, Undead Master
Alignment: Neutral/(Good)
Class: Commoner 4/Adept 1
Race: Human
Str 15, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 13
Gag at 29 years old considers himself lucky. His widowed mother was a cleaner and servant at a lesser noble house, and heard that an elderly relative of the noble was looking for a 'reliable servant'. This relative proved to be a professional animator of the undead, and from the age of 16 Gag served him loyally for ten good years. Strangely enough, his master was afraid of being animated himself after his death, or having any part of his body stolen by thieves. Gag carefully followed his death-bed instructions, burning his body to fine ashes, and secretly scattering these. When he started looking for a new master, he was surprised to be informed that while almost all of his master's property had reverted to his family, he had been gifted with a number of Undead Control Talismans, and the undead that went with them, making him independently wealthy.
Gag picked up a little magic while working for his now dead master, which made him an Adept 1. He also acquired the Undead Talisman Master feat, allowing him to use three talismans at once ((4 + 1) / 2 = 3) to control undead, making him someone able to contract for work requiring quite a lot of undead. Of course, he has 'Profession (undead master)', so he knows how to get the best use out of his undead. As an Adept he can do some of the required magical maintenance on his undead, using Mending and Inflict Minor Wounds, or Inflict Light Wounds, spells to repair them.
One of Gag's business expenses is a guard to protect his undead, and his talismans, from theft. Lol Wardottir (Warrior 6) his chief guard, has worked for him for two years now, and while she initially thought the job rather creepy, they are now thinking marriage might be one way of rearranging their finances. With some junior Undead Masters, preferably including Adepts, in his employ he would be able to use more of the talismans and undead he owns, and get some time free to work on his studies, so he can (eventually) become a good enough Adept to animate his own undead.
As a reasonably civilized Undead Master, Gag ensures all his zombies remain masked at all times, with any distinguishing marks covered up. He does this to ensure that there is a minimum risk of anyone recognising 'post mortem relatives' in his employ. Note that at 4th level Gag added 1 to his Int.
The Magic of Maj Space (addition)
Undead Control: The use of Undead like zombies and skeletons, instead of slaves for manual labour, requires a means to freely transfer the control of them. This is done by creating an Undead Control Talisman, as part of the process of animating them. Creating a talisman requires an odd number of black onyx gems each worth at least 50gp, mounted in a copper medallion (of no particular value), the feat Create Wonderous Item (which does not require any experience points for this purpose), the ability to Animate Dead, and a number of bodies or skeletons equal to the number of gems in the talisman. The spell is cast and the talisman placed in rapid sucession in the mouth of each body to animate, burning-out the gems, then the ritual is completed with a drop of the animator's blood.
Talismans created by this ritual do not allow the animator to animate or control any more HD of undead than they otherwise could, but a single talisman can be carried by anyone, no matter whether they have any caster level, and will allow them to control the undead tied to this talisman as if they were the animator. Control is transfered by the new owner placing a drop of their blood on the talisman, and an Animate Dead spell from some source being cast over the talisman. Death of the owner of the talisman frees the undead, who usually wander off, becoming hostile to the living, but this does not prevent someone making themselves the new owner with the above ritual. Destroying any of the undead associated with a talisman does not affect any of the others, nor does an ill-maintained zombie falling to pieces. Once all the undead associated with a talisman have been destroyed it is burnt-out and useless. All the undead associated with a single talisman must be of the same type, typically zombies or skeletons of roughly the same size; you can't mix goblin or ogre zombies with orc ones.
These are rules about using Undead created by Animate Dead spell and typically controlled by an Undead Control Talisman. Skeletons are assumed to function as per the standard rules (see MM), but zombies are assumed to loose one hit point per day's hard physical labour from wear-and-tear (working 12 hours in any 24 hour day) unless repaired by a Mending spell per day, and two points per day's continuous work unless repaired by two Mending spells per day.
If the damage is not repaired that day an Inflict ~ Wounds spell will be needed. Zombies that loose more than half their initial hit points are assumed to have large areas of skin missing, bones showing, and look as though parts of them are ready to fall off.
Zombies that are worked until they have no remaining hit points de-animate, but if their flesh is removed, either by waiting for normal decay or by using something like rot grubs, then they may be re-animated as skeletons (zombies destroyed by combat may not). Note that skeletons who are re-animated zombies cannot be re-attached to the original Undead Control Talisman, by any means (bar Wishes), and re-animation is exactly the same procedure as normal animation of the undead.
GM Option: This is a new feat, Undead Talisman Master, which while only available to you if you have a class which could in theory to be developed to allow you to Animate Dead, means that you can use a number of Undead Control Talismans equal to half your total number of levels of any variety, rounded up. If you are capable of Animate Dead then the undead that this allows you to animate and control counts as one of your possible talismans. The most common class found with this feat is Adept (see DMG). This allows a single individual to potentially control a large number of undead, but not enough to form a (respectably sized) army. For example, if you are a 10th level maker of your own talismans you could control 20 HD (say 10 medium zombies) directly with your own abilities, and use four more talismans each of which gives you at most another 10 HD (say 4 x 5 = 20 medium zombies), for a total of 60 HD (say 30 medium zombies in total). Of course, given access to talismans made by very high level animators...
There is a 'Profession (undead master)' which deals with the use and maintenance of undead for commercial purposes. Zombies made to work by someone with this skill only loose hit points from hard work at half the rate they would with an unskilled supervisor. This is a profession where the pay is 50% higher than normal for a profession, there are generous working conditions, and the employers tend to be polite, as their employee is using what is potentially a very deadly weapon. If the undead are owned by the employee, and they are responsible for maintaining them, then the pay can be considerably higher, typically adding the sum of the pay rate for half the number of unskilled labourers as the number of undead provided.
Amulet of Zombie Preservation: is a black onyx amulet with a copper backing made from copper pieces, which contains a pinch of salt. This acts as an indefinite Gentle Repose spell on the flesh of a zombie, protecting it from any decay, and preventing insects or animals from being willing to lay eggs in it or eat it. However, does not protect the zombie from normal wear-and-tear caused by heavy work. This will also act as a Gentle Repose spell for the purpose of preserving a corpse or severed body part, or the like, for one day per the amulet's caster level.
Caster Level: 7th; Prerequisites: Create Wonderous Item, Gentle Repose; Market Price: 2,000 gp; Weight: -.
Amulet of Undead Healing: is a black onyx amulet which contains a drop of the (dried) blood of one capable of casting spells which repair undead. This acts to cause the undead to heal at the same rate that a living creature would from Natural Healing, i.e. one hit point per HD per day of rest. Rest for undead counts as only working 12 hours in any 24 hour day. Complete rest is doing no work, which gives one and one half times HD in hit points. If you are a living creature and you wear this amulet then the number of hit points you recover from Natural Healing per day is reduced by one, and the only other effect is that undead that normally attack living things will not be able to sense you are living, unless you attack them.
Caster Level: 3rd; Prerequisites: Create Wonderous Item, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Invisibility to Undead; Market Price: 1,500 gp; Weight: -.
Zombie Healer Amulet: is a black onyx amulet with a copper backing made from copper pieces, which contains a pinch of salt and a drop of the (dried) blood of one capable of casting spells which repair undead. This functions in all respects as both an Amulet of Zombie Preservation and an Amulet of Undead Healing.
Caster Level: 7th; Prerequisites: Create Wonderous Item, Gentle Repose, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Invisibility to Undead; Market Price: 3,000 gp; Weight: -.
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